Surprisingly,
the handsome church of St. Lawrence
which stands right next to one of England’s premier Stately
Homes, Hatfield
House, has little to do with the Cecils who lived there.

The
church is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086)
but the earliest remains surviving today are from the 12th
Century.
The lower walls of the nave and the south and west doors date to this
period.
At the west end are three narrow Norman windows, elsewhere larger
decorated
windows date from the 14th Century.

The
vast majority of the church structure dates to
the 13th Century, including the tower, which is an early
construction of its type, although enlarged three centuries later.

Rather
than the Cecils it was the Savage family who
have left the greatest reminders at the church, including the beautiful
Savage
Chapel dating to around 1500.

At
the time of this rebuild the church was renamed
as St. Mary’s, but by the mid-1700s the original name of St.
Lawrence had
re-emerged. The church is sometimes, confusingly, referred to as either
St.
Mary’s or St. Lawrence and St. Mary’s.

It
is worth a slight detour when visiting the
splendours of Hatfield House to have a look around this church, one of
Hertfordshire’s finest.